Abstract

The influence of storage duration and conditions for seeds of four corn hybrid parental forms with two sowing terms on their laboratory and field germination is studied. After 5 years of storage in a freezing chamber, the laboratory germination of the seeds was 82–87%, that at the warehouse with the uncontrolled conditions in the untreated seeds was 51–88%, and that in the treated seeds was 23–69%. The decrease of the laboratory germination according to the regression coefficient is not statistically proven for the parental forms of Nimfa C and Milena M during storage of the seeds in the freezing chamber and for the parental form of Madonna M in uncontrolled conditions. The storage of the treated sees of all parental forms led to a significant germination decrease (regression coefficient from–5.6 to–15.8%). According to the variance analysis data, the laboratory germination of the seeds after 5 years of storage depended by 36.5% on its duration and by 19.5% on the storage conditions. According to the clod test data for 2016–2017 (after 4 and 5 years of storage), it is determined 60.2% by the storage conditions, 15.4% by the plant genotype, and 15.7% by the interaction of these factors. The field germination of the seeds depended both on the sowing qualities, conditions, and duration of storage and the growing conditions, and it significantly varied by the years of study. In 2016–2017 during the first sowing period and in 2016 during the second sowing period, the best indicators of the field germination of the seeds in all parental forms were specified only in the condition of storage of the seeds in the freezing chamber. The decrease of these indicators in other variants was 2–31%. In 2013–2017 during the first sowing period and in 2013–2016 during the second sowing period, the germination of the seeds was determined by the interaction of the factors “seeds' storage duration” and “parental form genotype” by 79.8 and 52.3% respectively. The second most important factor in both cases was the interaction of the duration and conditions of seeds' storage: respectively 6.7 and 19.2%.